TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Starting Tuesday, Kansas is granting a yearlong exemption to small commercial trucks from most of the safety regulations it imposes upon larger haulers.
The Topeka Capital Journal reports that the exemption is the result of a new law. It was approved by the Legislature this year with large, bipartisan majorities at the urging of owners of landscaping, masonry and home-building businesses and trade groups.
They argued that smaller trucks shouldn’t face the same regulations as over-the-road semis.
But some state officials have misgivings.
The exemption will apply to trucks if their manufacturers specify that their weights when loaded are 26,000 pounds or less. Operators will avoid limits on hours they can be driven and requirements for tires, safety hitches, trailer braking systems or emergency equipment.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) today praised the U.S. Senate’s bipartisan passage of the “Victims of Child Abuse Act” (VOCAA), which he introduced with U.S. Senator Chris Coons (Del.) to help child victims of violent crimes and aid law enforcement officials who are working to hold perpetrators accountable. To read the text of the bill, click here.
In April 2014, Missouri KidsFirst honored Blunt with the inaugural “Standing with Children” Award in recognition of his legislative efforts to protect Missouri’s most vulnerable children. To view pictures of the award presentation, please click here. Blunt and Coons, who Co-Chair the Senate Law Enforcement Caucus, recently co-authored an op-ed urging Congress to pass VOCAA. To read the op-ed, click here.
“Our state has 22 Children’s Advocacy Centers that serve 7,000 of our state’s most vulnerable children each year by coordinating the investigation, treatment, and prosecution of child abuse cases,” said Blunt. “I was honored to receive the Missouri KidsFirst’s ‘Standing with Children’ Award, and I’m pleased the Senate passed this important bill. I urge my House colleagues to act so we can continue providing safe haven for child abuse victims and help law enforcement hold perpetrators accountable.”
“We have a responsibility to protect our children from violence and abuse,” said Coons. “Though we can’t prevent every tragedy, we can make sure that children and families have the resources they need to heal and obtain justice. Children’s Advocacy Centers bring all of these resources together under one roof for one mission – to deliver justice for children. Demand for these services has only grown since the Victims of Child Abuse Act was enacted more than two decades ago. Children’s Advocacy Centers served close to 300,000 children last year and 1,000 communities still have no access to a center when a child is the victim of a serious crime. I am grateful that the Senate has finally come together to reauthorize this vital program, and look forward to working with my colleagues in the House to get a bill to President Obama for his signature.”
Background on the Bill:
The legislation adopted last night reflects two modifications from the bill approved by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee last week. The first change is a reduction in the authorized funding level from $22.5 million per year to $20 million per year. This amount matches the most recent authorization level and is $1 million above the current fiscal year’s appropriation. The second modification is new language that will ensure that funds expended via the Crime Victim’s Fund, established under the Victims of Crime Act, are spent only for victim-assistance purposes. The reauthorization bill, which will need to be considered by the U.S. House of Representatives and signed into law by President Barack Obama, will strengthen Victims of Child Abuse Act programs through enhanced accountability provisions, non-profit requirements, and limitations on conference expenditures.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is poised to deliver its verdict in a case that weighs the religious rights of employers and the right of women to the birth control of their choice.
The court meets for a final time Monday to release its two remaining decisions before the justices take off for the summer.
One case involves birth control coverage under President Barack Obama’s health law. Employers must cover contraception for women at no extra charge among a range of preventive benefits in employee health plans. Dozens of companies, including arts and crafts chain Hobby Lobby, claim religious objections to covering some or all contraceptives.
The other case before the court deals with fees paid to labor unions representing government employees by workers who object to being affiliated with a union.
5612 Nieman Road, the site of Saturday morning accident
SHAWNEE, Kan- A suspect fleeing police was injured just after 10 a.m. Saturday in Johnson County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1999 Chevy van driven by Ronald L. Hinds, 63, Kansas City, Mo., was fleeing police northbound in a residential section of Nieman Road.
The driver lost control of the van and struck a pole.
Hinds was transported to Shawnee Mission Medical Center for treatment. The KHP reported he was not wearing as seat belt at the time of the accident.
No additional details on the pursuit have been released.
LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas and a child advocacy group have developed a web-based tool that helps social workers match adoptive families with children in foster care.
The tool, called Every Child a Priority or ECAP, uses statistical analysis and technology to figure out which families are most likely to meet a child’s needs.
“Essentially, ECAP is an enhanced matchmaking service for children and families,” Mike Patrick, chief executive at TFI Family Services Inc., said in a prepared statement released earlier this week.
A Topeka-based charity, TFI began developing the tool about two years ago. It later turned to KU’s Bioscience & Technology Business Center for help in marketing and selling ECAP.
The two entities later formed Foster Care Technologies, a small, for-profit company based in Lawrence.
The company plans to sell licensing agreements to child-placing agencies throughout the United States.
“Adoption placement stability is a federally tracked outcome that all foster care agencies have to address,” said Paul Epp, managing director at Foster Care Technologies. “So they’re all looking to improve in this area.”
ECAP, he said, is designed to predict families’ success in rearing children whose histories include physical or mental illnesses, aggressive behaviors, running away, lying and substance abuse.
In Kansas, almost 1,000 of the more than 6,100 children in foster care have had their parental rights severed and are available for adoption.
According to state records, the number of Kansas children in foster care reached all-time highs in March, April and May.
Kansas privatized most of its foster care services in 1996, after the system failed several court-ordered reviews.
Prior to last year, TFI was one of four nonprofit organizations charged with overseeing foster, family preservation and adoption services in Kansas.
TFI lost its contract in January 2013 when state officials decided to contract with two providers instead of four.
While developing ECAP, TFI asked two KU School of Social Welfare researchers, Terry Moore and Tom McDonald, to test the tool’s effectiveness. Their research showed a 23 percent increase in “placement stability” and a two-month reduction in the time it took to place a child with a family.
“Placement stability is a crucial measure,” Moore said. “Obviously, you want to minimize the degree to which kids are moving from place to place to place. That kind of constant upheaval isn’t good for them. We found ECAP to be a viable tool for increasing placement stability.”
NASA’s flying saucer-shaped test vehicle is ready to take to the skies from the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii
LOS ANGELES (AP) — After several weather delays, NASA will try to launch a “flying saucer” into Earth’s atmosphere Saturday to test technology that could be used to land on Mars.
The attempt off the coast of the Hawaiian island of Kauai will test the disc-shaped vehicle and a giant parachute.
Since the 1970s, NASA has used the same parachute design to slow landers and rovers as they streak through the thin Martian atmosphere. With plans to send heavier spacecraft and eventually astronauts, the space agency needs a much stronger parachute.
NASA is testing the technology high in Earth’s atmosphere because conditions there are similar to that of Mars.
High winds at the Kauai military range forced NASA to miss its original two-week launch window in June.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A review ordered by President Barack Obama portrays the Department of Veterans Affairs as a struggling agency battling a corrosive culture of distrust.
It says the VA lacks resources and is ill-prepared to deal with an influx of new and older veterans with a range of medical and mental health care needs.
The scathing report by deputy White House chief of staff Rob Nabors says the VA is beset by “significant and chronic system failures.”
Obama ordered the review in response to reports of long delays for treatment and of veterans dying while awaiting medical appointments.
Nabors’ report goes far beyond the lengthy waits and manipulated schedules raised by whistleblowers and chronicled in past internal and congressional investigations. It proposes wholesale restructuring and more doctors, nurses and administrative staff.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has signed legislation preserving a program that encourages businesses to place employees on part-time status instead of laying them off.
The measure enacted Friday is intended to keep Missouri in compliance with new federal requirements for the shared-work program.
Nixon said about 335 employers and more than 21,000 people currently participate in the program. It allows businesses to split working hours among a group of employees as an alternative to laying some of them off. In exchange, the employees’ incomes are supplemented with reduced amounts of unemployment benefits.
Missouri’s program had to be revised to match federal guidelines, or else it would have ended in August.
Business groups supported the legislation, which could allow Missouri to get an additional $2.5 million in federal funds.
Northwest Missouri State University’s Board of Regents on Thursday approved a four-year extension of University President Dr. John Jasinski’s contract.
Board Chair Dr. Mark Hargens said the extension was the result of Jasinski’s “exemplary service” to the University and the state.
“I think it is obvious to everyone who has worked with Dr. Jasinski that the University has prospered under his steady leadership,” Hargens said. “Extending his contract is important for the Board and all members of the University community.”
Jasinski’s current contract expires June 30, 2015, however, the Board evaluates the contract annually. Jasinski’s new contract takes effect July 1.
Jasinski, Northwest’s 10th president, assumed his role July 1, 2009. Under his leadership, Northwest enjoys peer-leading metrics in areas such as freshman success rate, retention rate, graduation rate, student satisfaction, student engagement and athletic success rate. The institution also has met all five of the state’s performance funding metrics each of the last two years and received full accreditation with no follow-ups.
The University has developed a comprehensive student success model focused on college completion and is completing a rigorous strategic enrollment management study, with both tying to the University’s updated strategic plan. Additionally, Northwest, during Jasinski’s presidency, has refined its mission, vision and values, and it has enhanced its financial position in a difficult economic climate.
Among his professional affiliations, Jasinski serves as chair of the Council on Public Higher Education, an organization consisting of chief executive officers from Missouri’s public four-year universities. He is past chair of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award’s Panel of Judges, serves on the American Association of State Colleges and Universities’ (AASCU) committee on professional development and is a member of AASCU’s rural coalition and membership retention and recruitment committees. Jasinski also serves on the St. Francis Hospital and Health Services Board of Directors and the Heartland Foundation Board of Trustees.
Jasinski returned to Northwest after serving the institution from 1986 to 2001 as a faculty member, department chair and associate provost and receiving awards such as the University Service Award and National Broadcast Adviser of the Year.
When I was a youngster, one of my favorite places to play on a cold winter day was my Uncle Joe and Aunt Anna’s faded red barn. Uncle Bernie had one too and it was also a must stop when we went to see our cousins.
John Schlageck writes for the Kansas Farm Bureau.
This warm, cluttered sanctuary served up a smorgasbord of playing opportunities. It was also a relaxing place, especially if it was raining or snowing outside and the weather was too bad to work. During winter, time usually wasn’t as pressing as it was during fall or spring planting, wheat harvest, haying or crop cultivation time.
About the time I was growing up, the popularity of tractors marked the end for many barns. Some were taken down while others were abandoned or replaced with Quonset huts made of plywood and galvanized steel.
We didn’t have a beautiful red barn on our farm in Sheridan County. Instead, my dad built a machine shed and what we called “The Big Shed.” It was 90-feet long and housed our tractors, grain drills, trucks and other farm equipment. When we had a bumper wheat crop, all the machinery was cleared out and it was filled with golden grain.
Why were so many barns painted red?
Probably the biggest reason was the ferric oxide, which was used to create red paint. It was cheap and the most readily available for farmers.
The wooden barns that dotted the prairie countryside weren’t generally a good example of housekeeping. In my uncle’s barn, old, dusty horse blankets and cobweb-covered horse collars hung from wooden pegs or rusty nails. Hay tongs also competed for space. Here and there a busted plow stock leaned against a wooden wall. Some barn corners were crowded with pitchforks and an occasional come-along. Tangled, broken bailing twine littered the damp dirt floor mingling with the smells of rusting iron, manure and mildewed leather.
As youngsters the hay mow (rhymes with cow) or hayloft was where our parents searched for us when we were hiding in the barn. While there were always wooden steps or a ladder to crawl up to this upper floor, we’d try to find new routes to the top. We’d risk life and limb crawling up the side of the barn grabbing onto anything that would hold our body weight or lassoing a post or board above and climbing the rope, hand over hand, to the loft.
Once inside this cavernous space, we’d marvel at the wooden pattern of the rafters high over our heads. We’d yell out at the pigeons or starlings who tried to invade our private world of kid adventures.
If there were bales or scattered hay outside one of the two large doors at either end of the hayloft, we’d often make the 15-20 foot plunge into the soft landing.
Hay was hoisted up and into the barn through these doors by a system of pulleys and a trolley that ran along a track attached to the top ridge of the barn. Trap doors in the floor allowed animal feed to be dropped into the mangers for the animals. As youngsters of nine, 10 or 11, these doors also made a perfect getaway during hide and seek as we jumped through and made our escape.
Exploring the tack room with all of the bridles and saddles was my favorite. Before I could ride, I’d struggle to take one of the saddles off the wall so I could place it on a sawhorse and pretend to ride like my hero, Roy Rogers.
And finally, who could forget the many idioms we heard about barns as children. You remember, “You couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.” “Were you born in a barn?” and “Your barn door is open.”
Today, many of the old fashioned barns we knew as children are gone. They’re mainly memories when folks with farming backgrounds visit at reunions or weddings. Still, these memories provide a warm glow of yesteryear.
Remember that bitter cold day in January of ’61 when the winter winds whistled under the eaves of Aunt Anna’s barn and the icy rain played tic-tac against the cobweb-blotched windows.
John Schlageck, A Hoxie native, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Starting Tuesday, Kansas is granting a yearlong exemption to small commercial trucks from most of the safety regulations it imposes upon larger haulers.
